Thank you to everyone who attended our fundraiser event this last Saturday. And thank you for all the donations, the volunteers did a great job, and everything went well for the most part. We had a big crowd – the room was packed! We had a tasty mansaf, thanks to our chefs and a huge variety of desserts for the dessert dash. We didn’t have to bring back much in the way of auction items, so that means everyone was in a shopping mood – thank you!

We had presentations by two doctors who have volunteered 100’s of hours to SCM, and they talked about their experiences in Greece and Jordan, the Syrians they met, and other volunteers from other aid organizations.

All in all, the event was great success and the money raised will go to fund a community/trauma center for the refugees living in the Tukwila area. It will provide community services for adults and children, and will have mental health professionals on staff to help people with post traumatic stress. It will also offer English lessons, and provide basic information and assistance as the refugees learn their way around their new home and community.

A highlight of the event were remarks given by Washington’s Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib. Below is just an except of his remarks, and you can read the summary provided by his office at this link: Lt. Gov Cyrus Habib Remarks

In his keynote address, the Lt. Governor spoke to the nexus between Salaam Cultural Museum’s work, and Washington state’s role in responding to the current refugee crisis and political climate. The Lt. Governor first acknowledged the damage the Trump administration’s travel ban wrought on Washington state — both for its impact on student travelers, and for its impact on friends and families wishing to visit loved ones to or from any of the seven originally banned majority-Muslim countries.

It is for our state’s widespread repudiation of that policy, the Lt. Governor said, that it is a “proud time to be a Washingtonian.” Across the country, he said, Washington state is seen as an example for its success in securing the first nationwide legal block of the Trump administration’s travel ban, and for demonstrating massive political support for immigrants and refugees at the municipal, county, and state level.

And although Senator Cantwell was unable to attend, she had a representative read a statement she had prepared for the event. You can read it by clicking on the image to enlarge it. 

 

Thanks to all again for your continued support of SCM’s mission and programs!

Join SCM at our fundraiser event on May 20, 2017 in Seattle. We will be serving a traditional middle eastern dinner, and we will have speakers and a silent auction.

Our event will be held at the new Centilia Cultural Center at El Centro de la Raza at 1660 S Roberto Maestas Festival Street, Seattle WA 98144. Doors open at 6 pm and the event will close at 9 pm. We hope you can join us to support our programs to aid the refugees both here and abroad.

For complete details and to purchase your tickets, click here to go to the Eventbrite page.

Tickets must be purchased in advance, there will be no sales at the door.

See you there!

 

SCM recently worked with the Muslim Community Resource Center (MCRC) in Redmond, WA to hold a clothing drive to raise funds for our food aid program. The drive, held on February 11th, brought in over 25,000 pounds of clothing and other soft household goods! Good will, whom we are partnering with, will be sending a check to SCM for over $5000 that will be used to buy food for refugees in Greece and Jordan.

SCM gives a big thank you to the MCRC and the entire community that participated and donated to this drive. The refugees thank you, and we are proud of all your efforts to support the refugees in need.

Thank you to everyone who helped and donated to our clothing and household goods drive that just wrapped up yesterday (May 31). It was a huge success, here are the totals:

12,376 pounds of soft goods/clothing turned in yesterday
1102 pounds of soft goods/clothing turned in last week
439 pounds of hard goods, books, household items

Total = 13,917 pounds!!!!

Value Village will be giving SCM just over $2700, that will be put to good use right away on our programs to help refugees in Jordan. The money will go to the Ramadan Food Drive to provide food for the refugee families. $31 buys a box of staples and a small amount of meat to feed one family for a month.

Thank you to all of our drop off locations: MAPS/MCRC in Redmond, Masjid Dar al-Arqam in Lynnwood, and Miro Tea in Ballard. Thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help load, drive, unload the trucks!

And thank you to Value Village for having this program that helps us raise much needed funds! They are a pleasure to work with and Bernice is always so helpful!

 

We would like to thank everyone who helped out with our clothing/soft goods drive last month. All the efforts and donations really paid off. We broke the record at Value Village for the amount of donations and received a check today for $2842.40! You donated over 14,000 pounds of clothing, bedding, accessories, towels, etc!

The money raised will be used for our upcoming medical mission to buy supplies, medications, baby formula, etc. Thank you all for your efforts, and keep going through your closets! We are going to have another drive next month. I know it is a high bar to surpass, but if we can get even close to what was brought in with the last clothing drive, it is a huge help!

Next Drive Ends April 15, 2015

If you want to be involved in the next drive, consider your children’s schools, your church or other civic group, or even just around your neighborhood. We have plastic bags and flyers we can send to you to hand out – if each child and their family in a class of 25 fills just 2 bags, at an average of $4 per bag, that is $200 we can use to buy 6 families food for a month, or 40 cans of baby formula. In exchange, you get to clean out the clutter from closets, drawers, bathrooms, garages, kitchens, and more!

Collect the bags, and bring them here to our office, or we can arrange a drop off time at the Value Village we are working with here in Seattle. We will close the drive on April 15th. Contact Brenda in the office or by email at brenda at salaamculturalmuseum.org for the details and to sign up to help.

If you live outside of the Seattle area, but would like to do a clothing drive in your area, contact Brenda and she can put you in touch with the coordinator at Value Village to find the closest one to you and set up the details for your drive.

Thank you again to everyone who donated, keep that spring cleaning going!